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'Star Wars' Franchise Crosses $4 Billion, Eclipsing Disney's Lucasfilm Price (hollywoodreporter.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the empire-building dept.

Combined, Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars: The Force Awakens have surpassed $4.06 billion in ticket sales at the worldwide box office. That's more than what Disney paid to buy George Lucas' Star Wars franchise. From the Hollywood Reporter: While an interesting benchmark, it doesn't, of course, account for the hundreds of millions spent to produce and market the trio of films, or the fact that Disney splits box-office grosses with theater owners. Conversely, Disney has minted additional money from lucrative ancillary revenue streams, merchandising sales and theme park attractions. Opening in North America on Dec. 15, The Last Jedi zoomed past the $900 million mark on Thursday, finishing the day with $934.2 million globally, including $464.6 million domestically and $469.6 internationally (it doesn't land in China until Jan. 5). The sequel to The Force Awakens was directed by Rian Johnson, and has dominated the Christmas corridor. The Last Jedi will jump the $1 billion mark over New Year's weekend on its way to becoming the top-grossing 2017 release, eclipsing the $1.264 billion earned by fellow Disney title Beauty and the Beast. In December 2015, filmmaker J.J. Abrams' The Force Awakens shattered numerous records on its way to grossing $2.068 billion globally, including an all-time best $936.7 million in North America, not accounting for inflation.

18 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. A movie with a message by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "We can film whatever we want, slap Star Wars on it and rake in the cash."

    1. Re:A movie with a message by Excelcia · · Score: 4, Informative

      I'm honestly now not sure if JJ or Lucas is worse. George Lucas, for all his (myriad) faults was at least original. JJ took the original trilogy and just put it in a blender and hit frappe. What came out was Star Wars for millennials.

      Empire vs Rebels
      Empire/First Order vs Resistance

      Force sensitive struggles to find himself on a journey to fulfill his birthright accompanied by cute droid.
      Force sensitive struggles to find herself on a journey to fulfill her birthright accompanied by cute droid.

      Evil shadowy overlord who in the past persuaded angsty rebellious jedi to betray the Jedi and destroy them, turning angsty rebellious jedi into evil sidekick.
      Evil shadowy overlord who persuaded angsty rebellious jedi to betray the Jedi and destroy them, turning angsty rebellious jedi into evil sidekick.

      Have to destroy death star in final battle to save rebel base.
      Have to destroy death planet in final battle to save rebel base.

      Yawn.

      Sure, the more control Lucas got, the worse his films got. Hands down awful. But at least the stupidity was his. I have to give him that. What was JJ's excuse?

    2. Re:A movie with a message by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Insightful

      JJ ruins things for me.

      Take, for example, the "mining ship" in Star Trek. No cargo hold for anything they mine, and a very impractical shape for anything that's doing mining. You can picture JJ in the boardroom, shouting "scarier, more menacing" and writing it in like a character. He ruined that when he wrote a hatch in dirt into Lost as a character. But the mining ship was stupid, for a mining ship. Every decision he makes is stupid, and designed to "entertain", not "tell a story". He should work for Cirque du Soleil. The other really stupid thing in Star Trek is the chase. Kirk is being chased by an instadeath. A larger creature (impractical for an ice planet), kills the creature and doesn't eat it. Picture a hunter out to kill a deer. It kills a deer. It notices the deer is chasing a mouse. The hunter ignores the deer he just killed, and chases after the mouse. That's the decision JJ made. It's stupid, and it ruins everything he touches.

      Some like that, and endless lens flare, but, personally, I find his obvious and deliberate decisions to be stupid and distracting.

      --
      Learn to love Alaska
    3. Re:A movie with a message by bongey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Kathleen Kennedy's goal is to make 'The Force Is Female" , https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/def...
      Make weak males , Mary Sue females throughout the movies. Come on Luke Skywalker gets his ass beat by a girl who just a week later didn't even know what the force existed. Oh and she can lift more than Yoda with the force. So she is basically the most powerful Jedi after about a week.

    4. Re:A movie with a message by hey! · · Score: 2

      Oh, there was some bad storytelling back in the original trilogy.

      "A New Hope" was apparently a total mess in the rough cut; some radical and brilliant editing that cut out Lucas's flat-footed exposition and created the quick pacing we remember that film for. Lucas was largely absent from the second installment and returned to deliver a disappointing Return of the Jedi.

      Lucas has tried to blame the bad rough cut of New Hope on his first editor and take credit for the changes in the final theatrical cut, but many of the thing that were wrong with that rough cut returned in Phantom Menace, when Lucas had become too powerful to say "no" to.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    5. Re:A movie with a message by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The first three movies had less than 1 minute of dialogue by female characters other then Leia, who was damseled twice and the second time in a bikini. Now we have some movies with some women in better roles and it's an all out assault on men, an insult to the entire gender.

      Han Solo was literally Objectified. Luke needed saving on several occasions. Leia was always the leader. Her capture and display showed the depravity and barbarousness of the outer rim, it was a different place perfect for escapism. The franchise would have died in the 80's without it. The prequels showed women senators, queens, civilization in the Republic. The latest went back to the outer rim and we get...a high end casino with a police force that cares about parking regulations?

      Let's look at the characters of The Last Jedi.

      Rose's sister: Dies a hero.
      Rey: Beats everybody. Saves Luke from his passive self.
      Leia: Space superwoman. Unkillable. Everyone worships her.
      Rose: Saves Fin from himself. Makes Poe's plan possible. Saves animals in pens. Saves Fin.
      Holdo: Keeps everybody in the dark. Acts like a traitor. Saves the day.

      Hux: A complete failure through and through. Evil.
      Poe: Reprimanded by Leia and Holdo. Every decision he makes is a mistake. Needs to be saved by Holdo's plan.
      Kylo: Saved by then beaten by Rey. Evil.
      Fin: Coward. Runs and needs to be saved by Rose.
      Luke: Coward, isolationist. Beaten by Rey then saved by Rey.
      Codebreaker: Traitorous. Thief. Evil.
      Snoke: "Dies" like a bitch. Evil.

      Every woman a hero. Every man a fuckup that needs saving by a woman. Any man that has no woman to save them is evil.

      Yeah, it sounds like an insult to an entire gender. Especially coming from a franchise designed from the start to appeal to teenage boys, young men, and have been kept alive for decades by billions of dollars in disproportionate spending by them.

      Lighthearted note: best scene in the film was when BB-8 pretended to be a mouse droid (MSE-6).

    6. Re:A movie with a message by Northdot · · Score: 2

      When did Luke get beaten up by Ray? What movie were you watching?

      I believe it was right after Luke interrupted the finger sex scene. He walks away, she cracks him on the head with her staff, they tussle and she gets the best of him finally threatening him with the light saber. She beat up fricking Luke Skywalker. Because female.

  2. $4bn in ticket sales? thats very nearly $0 profit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    i bet all that money has evaporated somewhere to show a loss on the balance sheet seeing as Harry Potter, order of the phoenix took $612m across all formats but apparantly made a $167m loss

    http://deadline.com/2010/07/studio-shame-even-harry-potter-pic-loses-money-because-of-warner-bros-phony-baloney-accounting-51886/

  3. Get over yourselves by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm 50 years old. In 1977 I saw Star Wars in the theatre 13 times ("Star Wars" NOT "A New Hope").

    I bought the comics. I had the toys. I read "Splinter of the Mind's Eye." I loved everything Star Wars.

    Nevertheless.

    People need to get over themselves. These movies are not the second coming of Christ. They are *never* going to be able to live up to fanboy expectations, so let those expectations go. See the movies, have a good time, enjoy the light sabers and the Falcon but stop getting so worked up about a 2.5 hours of popcorn fun.

    1. Re:Get over yourselves by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 2

      Now...
      How did the bombers suddenly appear next to the lead ship without being noticed?

      Cloaked?

      Okay- so the First Order has anti cloaking technology but doesn't use it when they are in battle.

      ---

      Looking at the rest... the bombs were rendered with gravity. it was dumb.
      The bombers were like tissue paper compared to B-52's. Bombers are normally built tough. That's their role- to slowly approach the enemy and then drop bombs.

      Tho to be honest- lack of missiles after 20 years of technological advance is a bit meh. It's like making a movie in the 2015's where the plot depends on the characters not being able to be able to get in touch with each other with.. cell phones.

      ---
      They didn't address why the first order didn't pull in any other ships to cut off the rebel fleet.
      They didn't address how the republic went from being restored after the return of the jedi to having only 3 ships left after a series of movies showing tremendous victories.
      They didn't address where snope came from after palpatine died.
      They didn't address why the first order was so powerful after repeated losses.
      They didn't address how Rose could fall so deeply in love with Finn in 18 hours.
      They didn't address why finn wasn't blown to pieces in his approach.
      They didn't address why the guns melted and then all further damage to his incredibly rickety ship (falling apart- you could put your foot thru it) ceased.
      They didn't address how the rebel fleet was faster... and so the empire could only pace it-not slowly fall behind.
      They didn't address why the empire was suddenly so scared to lose a few tie fighters when they had literally hundreds (at least 70 on each star destroyer which are like mile long air craft carriers plus whatever was on the main ship). I mean send over a few score TIE fighters, take out even one engine and then you can catch up. It was "just so".
      I'll stop here.. but man, there are multiple plot holes you could put a star destroyer thru sideways.

      --

      The craptastic universe trope was what I disliked most. I would dislike it if it were a new film.

      EVERYTHING YOU DO IS WRONG.

      Choose to be nice to the aliens? They are killers and you should have killed them first.
      Choose to be mean to the aliens? They were nice and going to save you from a supernova and now you die because you attacked them.

      Go on a mission? It's pointless.
      Attack and win? Really that was a loss.

      It was that part that violated the basic message of hope that was always star wars.

      I'm old and not a huge fan (saw the movies- read a half dozen books- never played the mmorg- etc.) but it's not just old people. It's not just men. You can see a wall of videos from people on Youtube of all genders and ages who really hate the film.

      It's some new dystopic film (like man of steel/batman v superman) with a star wars theme slapped over it. If it didn't have a star wars theme, it would have made Valerian look like a blockbuster.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  4. Not worked up, just frustrated. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    There was a whole universe of non-Lucas Star Wars that was what made it enjoyable to me. They shit all over the intricately woven story spanning dozens of authors that had been wrought over the 15ish years that Lucas had sat idle before crafting another film, and between him and now Disney, have managed to shit all over those stories such that a fictional schism is the only way to resolve it, much like with the TOS vs TNG trekkies, those who were into the FASA/Starfleet Battles Klingons and assorted races, versus those who followed TNG and company when they changed them into an almost unrecognizable race.

    For hardcore fans both of these events were slaps in the face. As I have said previously, the only real way to work around it is to boycott both universes and collaborate on new sci-fi universes owned and controlled by the fans, with restrictions/gentlemen's agreements on who does what with which characters, and on what are acceptable worldchanging events to weave into storylines. The potential is there, but for whatever reason, people seem to prefer to sheeple around the biggest assholes creative works, rather than banding together and forging their own, even if they will band together and forge derivative works of other's proprietary works to the same degree of effort.

    1. Re:Not worked up, just frustrated. by Wraithlyn · · Score: 2

      They shit all over the intricately woven story spanning dozens of authors that had been wrought over the 15ish years

      OMFG you precious entitled snowflake.

      You can still enjoy all those stories.

      The Expanded Universe was *never* the same level of canon as the films, and it would've been an idiotic decision on their part to be slavishly beholden to decades of EU stories. Do you actually think Lucas would've let new story ideas be rigidly boxed in by the EU if he had made these new films instead of Disney? Are you fucking high?

      Although George Lucas permitted the Expanded Universe to run parallel to his personal Star Wars creations, he never considered its stories to be part of his official canon.

      - http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki...

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    2. Re:Not worked up, just frustrated. by bongey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kathleen Kennedy's goal is to make 'The Force Is Female" , https://cdn1.thr.com/sites/def... make all future men in Star Wars weak and have Mary Sue females throughout the movies. Come on Luke Skywalker gets his ass beat by a girl who just a week later didn't even know what the force existed. Oh and she can lift more than Yoda with the force. So she is basically the most powerful Jedi after about a week.

  5. They're coasting on fumes by rsilvergun · · Score: 2

    it won't last forever. Eventually the mediocrity will catch up to them and folks just won't care. Did you see all those ads they did encoraging parents to share star wars with their kids? That was desperation. The product couldn't stand on it's own without nostalgia. When those kids grow up in 10 years and are movie going teenagers their remember star wars as that funny little movie dad liked.

    --
    Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
    1. Re:They're coasting on fumes by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I thnk of tihs movie as the "Batman vs. Superman" step.

      I won't be paying for the next movie unless my friends see it first and are raving about it.

      This was a terrible movie.

      Bad pacing, editing, meaningless storylines, change to a craptastic universe (where every choice you make is wrong), bad writing.

      The acting was decent.
      The look and feel was good.

      It reminds me of the DCU and the Kelven Star Trek lines.

      It destroys a ton of existing extended universe canon and even effectively destroys a fair amount of "movie only" canon.

      Basically, if it wasn't Star Wars- it would have been a bomb.

      It's down to 51% on RT and even the critical rating is dropping now that critics who had to pay to see the film and didn't have early access are weighing in which means they are almost all negative.

      I went the day after christmas. The theater parking lot was packed. We had 15 people in the star wars showing at 8pm. Everyone was seeing other films.

      I won't be seeing the next films unless my friends are raving about what a good movie it is. Notably, no one had anything good to say about it.

      "Look y'all, I'm Mary Poppins!" -- Admiral Organa- the last jedi.

      --
      She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
    2. Re:They're coasting on fumes by AHuxley · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But some General and Vice Admiral got to lecture the audience and cast.
      The really bad casino people and freedom for the "horses".
      Can an entire franchise be supported by more and more virtue signalling?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
  6. I never thought I'd say it but I miss Jar Jar by sandbagger · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The Last Jedi apparently died in Return of the Jedi.

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    ---- The above post was generated by the Turing Institute. Maybe.
  7. The expanded universe still exists. by Lallander · · Score: 2

    If the recent movies have left you dissatisfied go check out some of the novels from the expanded universe. The new movies may ignore them, but they still exist. Some of them are absolutely fantastic. Maybe some day we'll see them made into films. We can hope at least.